80+ Motivational Quotes for Students of All Ages

Ready to get your classroom pumped for the day? Instead of struggling to find the right words, check out these motivational quotes for students! We put together this list that’s perfect for sharing with kids. You can even use these in your own journal or vision board. These encouraging words are great for when your students need a little boost.

Our Favorite Motivational Quotes for Students

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. —Albert Einstein

Today a reader, tomorrow a leader. —Margaret Fuller

The best way to predict your future is to create it. —Abraham Lincoln

In a world where you can be anything, be kind. —Jennifer Dukes Lee

None of us is as smart as all of us. —Ken Blanchard

There is always time to make right what is wrong. —Susan Griffin

Once you learn to read, you will be forever free. —Frederick Douglass

A winner is just a loser who tried one more time. —George Augustus Moore

Success doesn’t come to you, you’ve got to go to it. —Marva Collins

Preparation is the key to success. —Alexander Graham Bell

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. —Joseph Addison

Nothing can dim the light which shines from within. —Maya Angelou

Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try. —Gail Devers

The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. —Walt Disney

Never let the fear of striking out stop you from playing the game. —Babe Ruth

Teachers can open the door, but you must enter it yourself.—Chinese Proverb

There is no elevator to success. You have to take the stairs. —Zig Ziglar

The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary. —Vidal Sassoon

You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream. —C.S. Lewis

Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world. —Howard Zinn

If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life. —Marcus Garvey

Be a student as long as you still have something to learn, and this will mean all your life. —Henry L. Doherty

All progress takes place outside the comfort zone. —Michael John Bobak

Challenges are what make life interesting. Overcoming them is what makes life meaningful. —Joshua J. Marine

Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after another. —Walter Elliott

The secret of your success is determined by your daily agenda. —John C. Maxwell

Action is the foundational key to all success. —Pablo Picasso

The secret of success is to do the common things uncommonly well. —John D. Rockefeller

If you put off everything till you’re sure of it, you’ll never get anything done. —Norman Vincent Peale

Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot, but make it hot by striking. —William Butler Yeats

You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step. —Martin Luther King, Jr.

Procrastination is the thief of time. —Edward Young

Begin while others are procrastinating. Work while others are wishing. —William Arthur Ward

The only difference between success and failure is the ability to take action. —Alexander Graham Bell

I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have. —Thomas Jefferson

Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can. —Arthur Ashe

I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. —Michael Jordan

I hear, and I forget. I see, and I remember. I do, and I understand. —Chinese Proverb

The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus. —Bruce Lee

Procrastination makes easy things hard and hard things harder. —Mason Cooley

Follow your passion. It will lead you to your purpose. —Oprah

Set tough goals and do not stop until you get there. —Bo Jackson

It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves. —Edmund Hillary

Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars. —Les Brown

Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better. —Jim Rohn

There is no substitute for hard work. —Thomas Edison

Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently. —Henry Ford

You don’t drown by falling in the water, you drown by staying there. —Ed Cole

When the student is ready, the master appears. —Buddhist Proverb

A book is like a garden that can be carried in your pocket. —Chinese Proverb

Change your thoughts and you will change your world. —Norman Vincent Peale

True education is about getting the best out of oneself. —Mahatma Gandhi

Youth is the time to study wisdom; the old age, that of practicing it. —Jean Jacques Rousseau

Worry gives a small thing a big shadow. —Swedish Proverb

The expert in anything was once a beginner. —Helen Hayes

There are no traffic jams on the extra mile. —Zig Ziglar

The road to success is always under construction. —Lily Tomlin

It always seems impossible until it’s done. —Nelson Mandela

The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows. —Sydney J. Harris

Work gives you meaning and purpose, and life is empty without it. —Stephen Hawking

You can’t have a better tomorrow if you’re still thinking about yesterday. —Charles F. Kettering

Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better. —Maya Angelou

Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will. —Karim Seddiki

You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. —A.A. Milne

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined. —Henry David Thoreau

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. —Eleanor Roosevelt

The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be ignited. —Plutarch

Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do. —John Wooden

A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new. —Albert Einstein

Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value. —Albert Einstein

Excellence is not a skill, it is an attitude. —Ralph Marston

Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good. —Minor Myers Jr.

Rule no.1 is, don’t sweat the small stuff. Rule no. 2 is, it’s all small stuff. —Robert Eliot

Quality is not an act, it is a habit. —Aristotle

What makes greatness is starting something that lives after you. —Ralph Sockman

Good things come to people who wait, but better things come to those who go out and get them. —Unknown

Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going. —Jim Ryun

The man who does not read books has no advantage over the one who cannot read them. —Mark Twain

The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you. —B.B. King

Learning is never done without errors and defeat. —Vladimir Lenin

You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great. —Zig Ziglar

Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world. —B.B. King

There are no shortcuts to any place worth going. —Beverly Stills

Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated. —R. Collier

He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; he who does not ask a question remains a fool forever. —Chinese Proverb

A man’s mind, stretched by new ideas, may never return to its original dimensions. —Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

He who opens a school door closes a prison. —Victor Hugo

If you think education is expensive, try ignorance. —Andy McIntyre

Like these motivational quotes for students? Check out these team-building quotes for classrooms and schools.

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